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Kilorn laughs "I would consider keeping you alive a very big so"

"Ia little distance between us

With what little dignity I have left, I sit back down on the sleeper and fight the urge to gru around" Kilorn turns to the wall, leaning against the packed earth so he can see out the"We’re doing quite a bit"

"They kept hunting" It isn’t a question, but Kilorn nods anyways "Even Nix?"

"The little bull co the shadow of a bruise on his jaw He knows Nix’s strength firsthand "And he’s quite good at the convincing part Ada too"

"Ada?" I say, surprised at the mention of what should be another newblood corpse "Ada Wallace?"

Cal nods "After Crance slipped the Seaskulls, he got her out of Harbor Bay Lifted her right froovernor’s mansion before Maven’s ot there"

As happy as I a of anger "So you threw her right back to the wolves Her and Nix both" My fist clenches around the fuzzy war to find some comfort "Nix is a fisherman; Ada’s a houseer?"

Cal lowers his eyes, sha his face into the waning light of sunset It bathes him in deep red, as if he’s been coated in blood It’s just ives htenseriously He’ll laugh his way into his grave

"So Gisa brought houard "She was nine maybe, and took it from itsto smother another chuckle "You remember, don’t you, Mare?" Despite his s to h "We don’t have ti "It wasn’t long until thearound the bottos in tow Made a real racket, all the quacking and squawking Bree and Tramy tried to run it off, didn’t they?" I re from the porch while my brothers threw rocks at theto her lost child And the duckling replied, squirive the little thing back ‘You are not a duck, Gisa,’ you said ‘You two don’t belong together’ And then you gave the duckling back to its mother, and watched them all scra to hear a point in all this"

"There is one," Caldeep in his chest He sounds al his, and you are certainly not their rins crookedly, falling back to his old jokes "You, on the other hand, look a bit worse for the wear"

"Don’t I know it" I try to s pulls the skin on my face, which in turn twists my neck and the new scars there They ache when I speak, and s Maven has taken away How happy itpain "Farley and Shade are with thele at the sight They are normally like opposites Kilorn is lean where Cal is burly Kilorn is golden-haired and green-eyed while Cal is dark with a gaze like living fire But here, in the waning light, behind the filaze, they start to seem alike

"Crance too," Cal adds

I blink, perplexed "Crance? He’s here? He’swith us?"

"Not like he had anywhere else to go," Cal says